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California Outdoors Hall of Fame inductees changed landscape

San Francisco’s Maxine McCormick, shown competing in at the World Casting Championships in England last year at age 14, has been recognized by the California Outdoors Hall of Fame.

San Francisco’s Maxine McCormick, shown competing in at the World Casting Championships in England last year at age 14, has been recognized by the California Outdoors Hall of Fame.

Photo: Mattias Rosell / Special To The Chronicle 2018

Photo: Mattias Rosell / Special To The Chronicle 2018

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San Francisco’s Maxine McCormick, shown competing in at the World Casting Championships in England last year at age 14, has been recognized by the California Outdoors Hall of Fame.

San Francisco’s Maxine McCormick, shown competing in at the World Casting Championships in England last year at age 14, has been recognized by the California Outdoors Hall of Fame.

Photo: Mattias Rosell / Special To The Chronicle 2018

California Outdoors Hall of Fame inductees changed landscape

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A salmon conservationist who helped invent an underwater filming technique, one of the world’s greatest hikers, and the man who brought California travel into the lives of millions were voted this week into the California Outdoors Hall of Fame.

Salmon conservationist Dick Pool of Lafayette, hiker Francis Tapon of Millbrae, and travel writer extraordinaire John Poimiroo of El Dorado Hills will be inducted Saturday at the Sacramento International Sportsmen’s Exposition.

Maxine McCormick, the 15-year-old flycasting prodigy, won induction in a new category, “Movers and Shakers,” which honors young pioneers in the outdoors. Norman Clyde, a legendary mountain climber of the early 1900s, will receive posthumous induction.

To win induction, nominees must be named on 60 percent of ballots. Anybody can nominate a candidate. Voters are members of the Circle of Chiefs — that is, previous winners of the award, along with game changers in the outdoors industry.

Candidates must fill two requirements:

•Inspiration: The nominees have inspired thousands of Californians to take part in the great outdoors and/or conservation.

•Adventure: The nominees must have taken part in a paramount scope of adventures.

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The winner’s full biographies will appear at the Hall of Fame website at www.cohof.org, where a nomination form is also available.

The 2019 winners:

Movers and shakers

An award for pioneers in the outdoors under 30:

Maxine McCormick (83 percent of vote): The San Francisco native became, at age 12, the youngest world champion in fly-casting history during the championships in Estonia in 2016. She was the first child to win a gold medal at a world-class event since 13-year-old American diver Marjorie Gestring won gold in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 2018, McCormick followed that up by winning another gold medal at the world championships, this time in England, for Trout Accuracy and Salmon Distance. Her success, personality and eloquence have captured the imagination of media and the public in the U.S. and Europe.

“The No. 1 question people ask is, ‘How did I get into casting?’ ” McCormick said. “I tell them how my dad flyfishes, and one day, I was like 9, he took me to the casting ponds (at Golden Gate Park) and I tried it. I liked it right off.”

Posthumous

Norman Clyde (70 percent): The 20th century mountaineer (1885-1972) achieved more than 130 first ascents, many in California’s high Sierra and Yosemite. He set a speed climbing record on Mount Shasta in 1923, where he climbed from Horse Camp (at 8,000 feet) to the summit (14,179 feet) in 3 hours and 17 minutes. In 1925, he completed 53 climbs in the Sierra Nevada. Clyde has 1,467 articles archived at the Bancroft Library at the UC-Berkeley. He was a guide, naturalist and author.

“In my 80s, I still prefer to sleep outside at my ranch house, in my sleeping bag, not a bed,” said Clyde, according to the Bancroft Library.

—Tom Stienstra

Dick Pool (91 percent of vote): He started as a tackle inventor with innovative underwater film techniques and then advanced as a leader for the conservation of California salmon and steelhead for more than 30 years. He developed an underwater system to film and watch salmon lures being trolled, and with the information then invented the Salmon Rotary Killer and helped open up the world of downrigger trolling on the California coast.

Pool has served on numerous state and federal salmon advisory committees and has testified as an expert witness on salmon issues before the California Legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives. His appointments include the California Fish and Game Upper Sacramento Salmon and Steelhead Advisory Committee; the advisory committee on winter-run salmon for the National Marine Fisheries Service; and the Board of Directors for the American Sportfishing Association.

“When we figured out how to film trolled lures and then watched a big salmon make 17 passes at a lure without getting hooked, it was like watching the greatest secret show on Earth,” Pool said.

Francis Tapon (61 percent): One of the world’s greatest hikers and wilderness heroes, he is one of a handful of Americans to have hiked the Triple Crown: the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail, and the 5,600-mile Continental Divide Trail.

In 2018, Tapon returned to his California home after a series of expeditions in which he hiked 10,000 miles, including 2,000 miles across Madagascar, and climbed 50 of 54 of Africa’s highest peaks. Tapon has traveled to more than 100 countries and has written two books, “Hike Your Own Hike,” from 2006, and “The Hidden Europe: What Europeans Can Teach Us,” in 2012.

“The whole five years in Africa, it cost me $110,000,” he said. “It’s a lot of money, it’s true, but a lot of people could afford to do this if they wanted to. I camp, I live simply, buy street food. My biggest expense was a reliable 4x4 pick-up truck to get around Africa.”

John Poimiroo (61 percent): The El Dorado Hills resident is California’s ambassador to the outdoors. As an outdoorsman, Poimiroo was a ski patrol officer for 17 years, has skied every significant mountain resort in California, ventured across all of Yosemite National Park and visited every California state park. He served as director of California State Tourism under two governors of different parties and as director of tourism at Yosemite and at Squaw Valley.